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World Cup Stadium Creates More Solar Energy than Some Participating Countries

At the United Nations Sustainable Energy Forum located in New York City, Britain’s NGO Practical released the Poor People’s Energy Outlook report (PPEO). According to the report, 11 of the 32 countries participating in this year’s World Cup soccer tournament are not able to create as much solar energy as Brazil’s world cup stadium that generates 2.5MW of solar power.

The national stadium alone, Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha, produces 2.5MW of solar power, and all the Brazilian World Cup venues will generate 5.45MW of solar energy. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Honduras, Ghana, Iran, Ivory Coast, and Uruguay are all competing in the World Cup, producing 2.5MW or less of solar power. Brazil’s solar powered stadiums will generate more renewable energy than any previous World Cup, making this World Cup the greenest yet.

The NGO Practical Action hopes that with the publishing of the report it sets the trend of making a financial investment into the World Cup stadiums to make the World Cup greener. On the other side of the argument, the hope is that the popularity of the World Cup brings attention to larger issues at hand.

According to the World Bank there is still a fifth of the world’s population (1.2 billion people) without electricity. There has been a greater investment into renewable energy sources in one country for one sporting event than there has been in 11 of the 32 countries competing in the World Cup, argues NGO Practical Action’s CEO Simon Trace. The report argues that without reliable access to energy, there will always be a large part of the world living in poverty, especially in developing countries where lack of access to energy restricts health and economic growth.

The overall goal of the Poor People’s Energy report is to end energy poverty by 2030 and specifically show what strategies are needed to end energy poverty. The report stresses the idea that the current strategies will not end energy poverty by 2030 and argues if the strategies continue, there will still be one in five people without electricity and a third of the global population living without modern energy sources. The suggested solution in the report to reach the global populations without energy is renewable off-grid methods such as wind and solar compared to the traditional grid-based electrification method.